The Dinaric Arc region, encompassing Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, is a global biodiversity hub with many endemic plant and animal species thriving in rich habitats sustained by rivers and associated wetlands and groundwater. Rivers are the cornerstone of a healthy environment, providing provisioning services (drinking and irrigation water, food and energy, economic activities), regulating services (water purification, groundwater stock balancing and feeding, salinity prevention, flood mitigation, sediment transport and retention), as well as supporting functions of freshwater ecosystems (nutrient cycling, primary production, biodiversity maintenance). They also offer a variety of cultural services—recreational opportunities, aesthetic and spiritual values—to human society. All the services provided to nature and people by well-preserved freshwater bodies are threatened by the increasing trend in the countries of the Dinaric Arc to build new hydropower plants.

A path towards sustainable hydropower in the Dinaric Arc

The Vjosa river, Albania. © Goran Šafarek / WWF-Canon

Freshwater oasis threatened by hydropower

FACTSHEET

2014

Making hydropower a sustainable source of energy The unwise use of our rivers today will have significant detrimental effects on people, nature and the economy in the future. The countries of the Dinaric Arc—with their extensive network of well preserved rivers—are in a unique position to ensure the long-term livelihoods of their people and the health of their environment. WWF believes that hydropower development should be conceived as part of a sustainable energy policy and realized according to internationally recognised standards and best practices. Existing, inefficient, hydropower facilities should be refurbished to increase their energy output and minimize their ecological impacts, before considering construction of new hydropower plants. New facilities should only be built outside freshwater areas of high ecological significance. With careful planning Dinaric Arc countries will avoid significant costs in the future, learning from the example of many European countries and their expensive restoration projects on rivers which have been depleted by poor planning and management.

Existing hydropower facilities and associated

energy infrastructure are decades old,

resulting in loss of energy during production

and transport and avoidable biodiversity

loss.

Bojan StojanovicCommunications OfficerWWF Mediterraneanbstojanovic@wwfmedpo.org

Petra RemetaFreshwater and Energy Policy OfficerWWF Mediterraneanpremeta@wwfmedpo.org

croatia.panda.org mediterranean.panda.org

Contacts

FACTSHEET 2014

© Panda Symbol WWF - World Wide Fund For Nature © “WWF” is a Registered Trademark

MEDITERRANEAN.PANDA.ORGMED

Why we are here

www.panda.org/mediterranean

To stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment andto build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

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WWF calls on the governments of the Dinaric Arc countries, potential investors and financing institutions to follow or stipulate in their requirements these guidelines for new hydropower development:

• Increaseefficiency of existing energy infrastructure before planning any new power sources

• Developsustainableenergypolicy which equally balances environmental, economic and social aspects, and is based on a mix of diversified renewable energy resulting from a sound assessment of national renewable potential

• Upgradeexistingplants (technical and ecological upgrades) before planning new hydropower capacities

• Observeexclusionzones for hydropower development, taking into account impacts assessed on the river basin scale

• Implementfull-scalemitigationmeasures and especially integration of environmental flow regimes and fish passes in hydropower plant designs (existing and planned).

Putting sustainable hydropower into practiceRivers and river reaches most important for the Dinaric Arc

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Mirna

Kupa

Raš

a

Gacka

LakeKruščica

Una

Lika

Zrmanja

Krka

Čikola

Cetina

Neretva

Plitvička Lakes

Dobra

Korana

Una

Glina

Kupa

Sava

Sava

LonjaPakra

Bijela

Ilova

Česma

Mura

Drava

Krapina

Bednja

Orljava

Karašica

Drava

Sava

Sava

Drin

a

Drina

Vuka

Dunav

UnaVrb

as

Vrbas

Sana

BuškoLake

Bosna

Jala

SprečaKrivaja

Lim

Drina

Krupa

Bregava

Trebižat

Buna

Neretva

Drežanka

Doljanka JablaničkoLake

RamskoLake

Rakitnica

Ljuta

Neretva

Zalomka

Tara

PivskoLake

Tara

Ceotina

Lim

Ibar

Mor

ača

KotorskiBay

RijekaCrnojevića

Lake Shkodra / Skadarsko Lake

Fierza

Drini i Zi

Mati

Erzeni

ShkumbiniLakeOhrid

Semani Dev

olli

LakePrespa

Vjose

Vjose

Osumi

Drino

Varaždin

Zagreb

Karlovac

Bihać

Osijek

Slavonski Brod

Banja Luka

Prijedor

Tuzla

Zenica

Mostar

Sarajevo

Nikšić

Bijelo Polje

Bar

Fieri Korça

Rijeka

Split

DubrovnikPodgorica

Tirana

Shkodra

Most outstanding river reachesRiver reaches important for connectivityOther evaluated river reachesExisting dams

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the

ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of dependence.

From Rivers: lifelines of the Dinaric Arc: Conservation of the most valuable rivers of South-Eastern Europe, WWF Mediterranean 2014.

http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/rivers_lifelines_of_the_dinaric_arc.pdf

SloveniaHungary

Croatia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Montenegro

Albania

Kosovo*

Macedonia

Greece

Serbia

Wetlands of the Neretva River, Croatia. © Andrija Vrdoljak / WWF-Canon

WWF Mediterranean, with environmental institutions from the Dinaric Arc countries, in 2014 carried out a scientific analysis of 296 rivers in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro (total combined length of rivers: 13,278km). The analysis showed that the level of integrity of the Dinaric Arc river network is very high with many of the rivers still in excellent or good condition. River reaches found to be outstanding total 8,739km in length, accounting for 66% of the total river length analysed. The country with the highest percentage of preserved rivers is Montenegro with 76% of outstanding rivers (898km), followed by Croatia with 73% (3,301km), Bosnia and Herzegovina with 60% (2,632km) and Albania also with 60% (1,907km). A map based on these results shows which rivers and river reaches are considered the most valuable. Out of these, and following through on the ICPDR Guiding Principles, actual exclusion zones for hydropower development should be determined. WWF will continue working with state institutions to help define these exclusion zones and to ensure their full and comprehensive legal protection through legislative acts2.

Identification of exclusion zones in the Dinaric Arc

2For more details see WWF’s publication Rivers: lifelines of the Dinaric Arc at http://awsassets.panda.org/

downloads/rivers_lifelines_of_the_dinaric_arc.pdf

“The ICPDR Guiding Principles spell out for the first time how sustainable hydropower can be achieved specifically in the

southeast European context of today, and—remarkably—they have been endorsed by government authorities, the private

sector and environmental NGOs alike.”

Irene Lucius, Head of Policy and Green Economy, WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme

Exclusion zones are areas not suitable for new hydropower

development. Defined and mapped under a basin-wide-

agreed set of scientifically sound criteria, their protection

should be made legally binding.

Following the national campaign “Mountain rivers: the last chance” initiated by WWF Romania in 2013, which mobilised fishermen, researchers, academics and ecotourism groups, 20,000 people signed a petition to stop the approval of small hydropower projects (SHPs) under current legislation.

As a result, WWF and the Ministry Delegate for Water, Forestry and Fisheries signed a Memorandum of Understanding to align Romanian law to EU legislation as well as with the stated purpose of creating exclusion zones, where small hydropower could not be built or would be very restricted. The Ministry temporarily suspended the approval process of new hydropower projects and created a joint working group of government and civil society experts to develop a set of additional criteria for the development of hydropower and assignation of the exclusion zones.

Importantly for the next programming period the new partnership agreement between Romania and the European Commission has excluded small hydropower plants from EU funding until 2020.

The case of small hydropower plants in Romania

The Danube River Protection Convention and its sustainable hydropower principles

1For a detailed review ICPDR recommendations please consult Guiding Principles on Sustainable Hydropower

Development in the Danube Basin at www.icpdr.org/main/activities-projects/hydropower.

Sutjeska National Park, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Sutjeska Canyon and the Sutjeska River (in Sutjeska National Park) where a series of small hydropower plants are planned. © Đorđije Milanović

GuidingPrinciplesonSustainableHydropowerDevelopmentintheDanubeBasin were initiated by the Ministers of the contracting parties to the Danube River Protection Convention (DRPC) who asked for a set of guidelines for a sustainable, balanced and integrated approach to the development and use of hydropower. The document was prepared by the ICPDR in a broad participative process, with the involvement of government representatives (energy and environment), the hydropower sector, NGOs and the scientific community.

ICPDR’s Guiding Principles support the timely achievement of renewable energy targets, whilst ensuring fulfilment of environmental and water management objectives by setting out a comprehensive list of recommendations.

The contracting countries of the DRPC committed to implement those principles which should, therefore, be incorporated into their relevant national legislation. The key recommendations given in the Guiding Principles are:

• The environmental, social and economic factors of a project should be considered in an equally balanced way

• Strategic planning should be carried out through a two-level assessment: regional, leading to identification of river stretches where hydropower development is legally forbidden (exclusion zones) or should be avoided (less favourable and non-favourable zones); and project-specific, where the impact of an individual project is assessed on a river basin scale

• Ensuring environmental flows and fish migration as priority mitigation measures for the maintenance and improvement of the ecological status of waters1.

WWF recommends two important tools to ensure the sustainable development of new hydropower facilities, that are readily applicable throughout the region:

• GuidingPrinciplesonSustainableHydropowerDevelopmentintheDanubeBasinprepared by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), and

• MapofRiversandRiverReachesMostImportantfortheDinaricArc produced with WWF support.

Built on the principles of sustainability, these tools offer a uniform, comprehensive and holistic approach to siting and developing hydropower plants. They address public bodies and authorities, and are also relevant for potential investors and financing institutions, NGOs and the interested public.

A full implementation of their approach—both in planning and developing new hydropower facilities—would ensure the sustainable development of hydropower potential and the preservation of the most significant rivers and river reaches in individual countries and in the Dinaric Arc region as a whole.

Tools for ensuring sustainable hydropower development

Fish passes, integrated into dam designs, allow the passage of native fish species to their spawning grounds.

Environmental flow mimics nature by balancing water volume, quality and timing, taking into account the actual needs of ecosystems and communities downstream.

Rivers: lifelines of the Dinaric Arc

296 rivers analysed

length 13,278 km

66% of the total river length analysed is outstanding (8,739 km) Total basin surface of

around 165,000 km²

Conservation of the most valuable rivers of South-Eastern Europe